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The iPhone 5s slow motion video might not be true 720p, experiment against the Note 3 shows

posted by Daniel P. / Oct 18, 2013, 2:37 AM

The iPhone 5s slow motion video might not be true 720p, experiment against the Note 3 shows

Apple touts the slow motion video capability in its new iPhone 5s, equipped with an upgraded iSight camera and a powerful 64-bit A7 processor. It turns out, as a little experiment has shown, that it might not be a true 720p slow-mo with 120fps, but rather upscaled from 480p.

The experiment was done against the new Galaxy Note 3 from Samsung, which features true 720p slow motion effect in its video camera settings. The regular 720p video captured with the Note 3 shows noticeably more detail than the allegedly 720p one from the iPhone 5s in the same circumstances, as you can see from the video screenshots below.

When the Note 3 video was upconverted to 720p, too, the resulting loss of detail was pretty similar to what we get with Apple's default slow-mo settings, which led to the thought that this is precisely what Apple is doing here. In any case, the best clues as to why Apple might be doing this are to save on resources - like memory, for instance.

source: GSMArena

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53 Comments

1. itsdeepak4u2000

Posts: 3718; Member since: Nov 03, 2012

In short, Apple is lying to their customers. Very bad innovation.

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 2:41 AM 40

6. tech2

Posts: 3487; Member since: Oct 26, 2012

That A7 processor in 5s is an absolute waste ! Not only it doesn't need to support a HD screen (let alone a full HD) but now it can't even record 720p video at 120fps ! I wonder is the processor inferior or Apple's ios in utilizing it ?!

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 2:57 AM 21

50. saffant

Posts: 274; Member since: Jul 04, 2011

*facepalm*

posted on Oct 19, 2013, 12:39 AM 0

53. bachir8k

Posts: 153; Member since: Feb 25, 2013

Same story as the "FHD" output of the lightning? turned out to be up-scaled res.

posted on Oct 19, 2013, 6:17 AM 0

9. ijklmnop

Posts: 18; Member since: Oct 10, 2013

...and PA is supporting apple that they are actually saving resources.WTF? "should have added fckn 3GB ram".this shouldve been a conclusion. blind isheeps

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 3:21 AM 17

44. kaira

Posts: 26; Member since: May 12, 2013

@PhoneArena, I don't know whether you get paid by APPLE. Why would you speak on behalf of APPLE? Had it be other OEM company, the MICHEAL H, ALAN F etc of this world, would be bashing it, but since its APPLE - its double standards... PhoneArena is bias to say the least, whether I'm banned it doesn't matter... This is not ON!

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 10:34 AM 2

15. bbblader

Posts: 590; Member since: Oct 24, 2011

Apple lies that it's iPhone can do slow motion 720p@120fps and no one bats an eye. Nokia release an ois video which doesn't say that it was shot on the Lumia 920 and everyone loses their minds...

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 3:35 AM 19

19. PapaSmurf

Posts: 10457; Member since: May 14, 2012

Oh this will get a lot of heat trust me. Since it's Apple, it'll get a lot of news coverage.

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 3:38 AM 7

23. skyline88

Posts: 698; Member since: Jul 15, 2013

cant blame them, Apple has got too many lies

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 3:50 AM 7

36. jacko1977

Posts: 428; Member since: Feb 11, 2012

like when they said ijunk5 was thinnest phone in the world and that screen was the best and no one came close when 720p screen came out and ios is the most advanced os in the world they spit out nothing but lies over over over

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 7:16 AM 4

27. tech2

Posts: 3487; Member since: Oct 26, 2012

Just because Apple is cheating on consumers as well that doesn't make Nokia's action any less dishonest. P.S. - The ad clearly showed the guy using 920 followed by a video of the recording. Don't tell me it was just a happy coincidence !

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 4:34 AM 2

28. PhoneArenaUser

Posts: 5498; Member since: Aug 05, 2011

New day, new story, but point is the same - iPhone 5S is overpriced crap.

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 4:36 AM 17

38. Finalflash

Posts: 4063; Member since: Jul 23, 2013

They've been doing that for a while now....no surprises here, their customers aren't exactly the tech cream of the crop. Like hell the pre-teens or grandmas even notice this.

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 8:23 AM 3

2. iluvsonynokia

Posts: 161; Member since: Aug 27, 2013

I think appe got patent on lie

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 2:47 AM 15

3. streethistory

Posts: 2; Member since: Mar 12, 2013

Too bad the HTC One/EVO had slo-mo video capture 1.5 years ago

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 2:50 AM 3

8. _Bone_

Posts: 2155; Member since: Oct 29, 2012

120fps @ 720p? .... right.

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 3:02 AM 5

39. Finalflash

Posts: 4063; Member since: Jul 23, 2013

Well, apparently Apple doesn't either, so HTC wins out because they likely could upscale from 480p as well in those phones.

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 8:26 AM 0

4. Rongocook

Posts: 76; Member since: Sep 20, 2013

Note 3, my true performer!

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 2:51 AM 17

5. ArtSim98

Posts: 3535; Member since: Dec 21, 2012

I didn't expect this at all... Soon Apple will patent using 480p as 720p.

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 2:52 AM 16

7. _Bone_

Posts: 2155; Member since: Oct 29, 2012

Caught cheating, where's Obama now?

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 3:02 AM 26

17. PapaSmurf

Posts: 10457; Member since: May 14, 2012

Caught cheating big time. One of the very few features of the new iPhone is being reported as a lie. Wait until the general public reads about this.

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 3:36 AM 13

40. Finalflash

Posts: 4063; Member since: Jul 23, 2013

They won't, not the ones that matter, being blind and deaf to criticism as they are.

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 8:27 AM 1

41. PapaSmurf

Posts: 10457; Member since: May 14, 2012

You'd be surprised as to how many average citizens read about tech online. All this has to do is surface on the front page of Yahoo! and word will spread like a wild fire.

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 10:15 AM 2

10. jose.vu

Posts: 16; Member since: Mar 28, 2013

Actually I don't quite believe in GSMArena way to do the comparison, First, if you look at the photo (capture from the video), the iphone5s one is way brighter than Note 3. Second, iphone5s requires much faster shutter speed (at least 1/120s). Combination of much brighter image + very high shutter speed means much higher ISO. If you look at any camera, higher ISO means more noise, hence noise reduction will smear all the details and image looks like being upscaled. I usually don't like Apple, but I do believe what they say in the spec (like battery or speed bump) ...

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 3:22 AM 1

11. darkskoliro

Posts: 1092; Member since: May 07, 2012

Note 3 also captured it at 120fps @ 720p, so it had the same shutter speeds. So it would have come down to optics, who would have better optimized the ISO balance etc. (The same ISO level doesnt mean same amount of noise. Depends on the sensor)

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 3:26 AM 11

25. genious1987

Posts: 2; Member since: Sep 18, 2012

Darkskolliro, Note 3 didn't record a slow-mo video @ 720P. "Here’s the experiment we did. We took a slo-mo video with the iPhone 5s and a regular 720p video with another smartphone simultaneously (because the iPhone 5s can’t record regular 720p videos)" From GSM Arena.

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 3:56 AM 0

29. darkskoliro

Posts: 1092; Member since: May 07, 2012

Someone with a Note 3 double check on that please, but I'd say it was 120fps @ 720p because I know on my HTC Butterfly I dont have an option to record 30fps @ 720p, if I want it in 720p its going to be in 60fps

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 5:01 AM 0

14. PapaSmurf

Posts: 10457; Member since: May 14, 2012

No...

posted on Oct 18, 2013, 3:33 AM 7

12. darkskoliro

Posts: 1092; Member since: May 07, 2012

This is the kind of detail I want from a review...pointing out quality of claims etc. Numbers are numbers, but if you have nothing to show for it then reviewers should be able to point it out.